The Long Run

Well, after 1 week off from running I had to start somewhere. As promised, I finally rode my bike to the Y instead of driving, I had been holding off until after the marathon. So, the bike ride was the warm up (about 20 minutes). Ran on the treadmill for 2.5 miles. Felt pretty good, although I could tell that there was still some knots in my calves left over from the marathon that just need to get run out.

Sammy woke me up at 4:30 this morning, barking at something (not quite sure what).  I had some trouble going back to sleep but was able to finally fall asleep just before having to wake up just after 6:00.  I did a loop around the neighborhood on the bike.  The air felt nice and cool this morning.  I went back inside and stretched a little bit and told Jenny that I was going for my run now so she could be ready when I got back.   I just ran 3.4 miles at an average pace of 8:34.  First 1/2 mile felt a little bit hard and sluggish and I realized that this was my first run outside since the marathon.  After 1 mile I was feeling pretty good.  Left calf was a bit better today, it's working itself out.   And of course yesterday mornings massage really helped!  I was starting to get spoiled with these, having had 4 in the past month to help my recovery (3 for the injury and one for post marathon).   Next one won't be for another month, so hopefully that is not being too spoiled :)

I had thought about doing 5 miles but since the sun was getting higher and since I'm trying to be careful, I cut it a little bit short.

I'm going to run a 5K on Saturday, but slower since I'll be running with Noah.   There should be lots of people there from my running group so that will be good to catch up with them. 

Another day of getting back to normal.   Once again the weather was fairly decent, those days are numbered so I'm enjoying them while they last.  I did my new warm up, a loop around the neighborhood on my bike, then did some stretching.  At the last minute I decided on a route - out to SR 54, up Starkey Blvd until I had run far enough and then back.

Started out slowly, and gradually settled into a comfortable pace, like yesterday, first 0.5 miles were uncomfortable, not painful, just slow and a little bit stiff in my lower legs.   Kept moving and felt better.  I cared a small bottle filled with accelerade, which I might have gotten by without it this morning but I figured why not bring some?  since it doesn't bother me too much to carry it.

Average pace: 8:47 

It felt good to get more than just a couple of miles or so.  Feeling back to normal almost. 

The mileage is kind of a guesstimate.   I was out of town on Thursday.  I was staying at a hotel in the Atlanta area and planned on doing about 4 on the treadmill.   There were three treadmills, two busy and one broken.  I got on the elliptical for a little bit and almost thought about scrapping the run but it was a pretty decent weather outside.  I wasn't familiar with any of the roads or where to run but I could hear  Sasha's voice telling me to just go outside and run around the parking lot.

Well, actually it was nicer than that, the hotel was next to a strip mall on one side and an office park 1/4 mile down the road.   So I was able to do a big loop through the connecting parking lots and drives.  I ran for 27.5 minutes but ran out of time otherwise I would have done more since I was feeling pretty good at the end of the run.  It was pretty hilly and I wasn't going all that fast but not too slow so I'm going to put down 3.1 miles for this run. 

Back at home this morning. It was nice that I didn't get in very late last night so I woke up feeling pretty fresh. I needed to be back home by about 10 minutes before 8 so Jenny could get to the Y early enough. I woke up a little bit early and rode my bike to the Y. I shaved off some time since the last time I rode there, down to about 15 minutes.

I hit the treadmill for 4.1 miles, overall pace was about 8:25 with some playing around with the speed. Did some weights (just leg extensions and bench press), then biked back just in time.

Jenny left for the Y and I spent some time doing some stretching and some other exercises.

Calf tightness from the beginning of the week is completely gone. I still can feel a little bit in my hip in the injury area if I speed up, so I'm going to keep the speed down for a while but add back in some of the miles.

I was originally going to run with Noah and Jenny was going to run with Andy, but Noah had skipped a lot of his training and Jenny's abs were pretty sore from a Tae Kwon Do class, so I ran with Andy instead and Jenny and Noah cheered us on. It was a really nice course along the Cotee river, with lots of shade trees. Weather was a little bit warm but pretty decent for June. There were also lots of my running friends there who I had not seen for a while.

Andy's last 5k was about a month ago with a 31:40 time, which he ran by himself. For this one he had done some pretty regular training. So, I knew he was capable of going faster but didn't want to push him too hard and risk blowing a PR (as well as possibly turning him off to running). So, the goal was to break 30:00.

Andy, Noah and I did a brief warm up (0.33 miles) while we were waiting, then Andy and I headed over to the starting line.

The gun went off and we took off with the crowd (about 300 or so people I think). We took off a little bit too fast, first mile at 9:07. Andy was holding up pretty good. Second mile was 9:36 which included a brief slowdown at the water stop. Still, well on track for sub 30:00. Once we were in the last mile Andy was going a little bit faster, especially at the 2.5 mile point. Last mile came in about 9:05.

We went through the finish chute but did not look at the clock and I forgot to turn off my Garmin until a little bit later (I stopped it at 28:55). Waiting on the results to get posted.

They had really great refreshments - lots of fresh fruit, muffins, Carraba's Italian restaurant food, Smoothie King, Starbucks coffee. One of the amazing things was that this was an inaugural 5K. The organizers included people from my running group, some people from the Y and running coach from the local high school. It was very well run.

Andy got a medal for first place in the boys 9 and under group, and Jenny's friend Jodi got first place in her age group. When they called out the name for 1st place, 9 and under Andy's heart sank - they were one letter off on the last name so he thought it was someone else (now that would have been a real bummer if there really was a 9 year old boy whose first and last names were the same except for one letter!) Jenny felt a little bit left out because lots of people did well today, sorry about that Jenny. Thanks for letting me run this one!